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Mornings with School Aged Children are NO Joke

I’ve been pretty lucky (up until now) with mornings as a mom. Besides a few months of colic early on, my kids have been pretty good about sleeping until after 7am and waking up “on the right side of the bed.” Well, looks like that era of motherhood is gone now that I have my children in school.

No one warns you about weekday mornings.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had friends warn me about packing lunches every day of the school year, and about the painstaking drama that surrounds homework. I was mentally prepared for this (well as much as one could prepare), but what I didn’t comprehend was the sheer exhaustion that would set in after rushing around to get two children ready to head out the door before 9am.

I even have it easier than most.

My 1st grader rides the bus, and I don’t have to get myself “ready” for the day the same as the moms who are rushing off to work. I commend all working moms & dad’s who do the school send off and still find a way to be presentable for the office. How you all do it, I will never know!!

Me on the other hand, it’s a shit show. If I manage to get up before the 3 year old and squeeze in a shower, I look like more of a drowned rat than a put together person when I finally head out the door. I also find myself looking through my sweat pants drawer (yes they have a designated drawer) daily in hopes that a classier pair will magically appear.

I quickly learned having school aged children also means forget having a clean house.

We are doing good if both kids have eaten half of their breakfast and are dressed before running out the door. There is zero time to put away dishes or even wipe food off the floor. If you would see my house right now you would question if we have been robbed or if it’s just a new collection site for the hurricane victims. Some days, the fact that I can still find our dog is a win in itself.

The speed of my children in the mornings is similar to the speed of a sloth.

No joke. My tomboy daughter who is all things fast and furious most days, turns into a slug all weekday mornings. I have to wake her, then remind her to gent dressed…. then do that all over again 20 minutes later. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell her, she always shows up downstairs without socks and usually missing another important clothing item or two.

Don’t even get me started on breakfast!!!

It doesn’t matter what I make, just put it on a plate, and it is guaranteed that it will take over 20 minutes to eat. I’m not making gourmet breakfasts here, I’m talking oatmeal, muffins, toast, etc and it’s like their little arms don’t know how to move the food up to their mouths all the sudden. It drives me crazy. I literally counted how many times I said “keep eating” this morning in a 20 minute period and it was 10. Seriously. Every two minutes I had to nag to get these monkeys to shovel food into their mouths.

I won’t even go into packing lunches, snacks and water bottles because we all know how that goes.

Basically, what I’m saying is this: having school aged children makes weekday mornings hard.

Anyone with more than 2 kids to get out the door deserves a medal. Seriously, if you ever see me staring at you and your children walking into school just know that I’m in awe of you and I’m not some crazy, judgmental mom. I’m impressed and would love you to take my kids and whip them into shape!

Here’s to figuring this all out before the New Year. If any seasoned parents out there have tips on how not to lose your mind in the mornings, please send them my way!!!